A round 30 days to go and we may know who the next government will be and the damage these ‘wannabe’ leaders are inflicting on the apprenticeship vision might be over.
It’s the time of the year when we are talking to this summer’s school-leavers who want to become an apprentice and already several are concerned that an apprenticeship may not be available to them if Labour get into power.
Those looking to start their craft careers in hotel and catering or construction, typically NVQ level two entry level skills, are being put off by Labour’s plans to abandon intermediate apprenticeships and demand A-level entry for advanced apprenticeships as the only apprenticeship option.
At the same time they are promising to build 250,000 new homes a-year with no mention of how to fix the skills shortage of construction workers or train young people for this industry.
Again, we are finding resistance from employers about commencing apprenticeship programmes at the moment with the uncertainty of their future content if the Conservatives return to power following the various Trailblazer fiascos and uncertainties.
Why would an employer wish to commit time and resources to an apprenticeship programme when the Conservatives’ current plans are uncharted, unclear and untested?
It will be interesting to see what effect all the political claptrap about apprentices throughout the election campaign has on actual start numbers, which are already declining.
Both potential apprentices and employers want certainty and consistency before committing, not just political rhetoric.
I wonder how long it will be before the voucher is viewed as an additional bureaucratic burden and scrapped rather than a political expediency to support the government’s mantra of the employers controlling the funding
Outside of the education trade press, I have not read or heard any political commentator or candidate comment on the vicious slash in funding to the FE sector.
It’s disappointing how considered reports based on empiric evidence, such as the Russell review of FE or the Leach report on the country’s skills requirements are so quickly kicked into touch without their recommendations ever coming fully to fruition.
Our young people deserve, and our country requires, the skills needed to grow the economy.
Whether through apprenticeships or full-time vocational courses, the consequences of not funding them will result in economic growth stalling, or more imported skilled labour resulting in increasing Neets (those not in education, employment or training).
I am glad the government has decided to allow apprenticeship funding to continue to be paid directly to providers, albeit with a sop to employers with a voucher.
I wonder how long it will be before the voucher is viewed as an additional bureaucratic burden and scrapped rather than a political expediency to support the government’s mantra of the employers controlling the funding by selecting the provider they wish to choose. It is a relief to us at HIT.
Employers already have the choice of which provider or college to use. However, we continually find at the various trade show we attend around the country, many employers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises are unaware of the availability and breadth of the apprenticeship programmes on offer. Selling the apprenticeship concept to new employers is much easier if they are not burdened or put off by having to claim the money from government themselves and then pass payment to their provider.
At a time of reduced funding and increasing costs, it was pleasing to note a 20 per cent decline in fuel costs on our monthly £100k plus petrol and diesel bills.
About half our trainer-assessor staff opt to have a company car, boldly emblazoned with the HIT red bow tie logo to undertake their site visits to their learners.
Now we are moving to a metallic bright red mini with the logo in black and white, a design which will with be as distinctive and recognizable as our current one. We attract a lot of business from the 0800 number on the side of our vehicles as well as a variety of comments on the quality of the driving or the driver.
A sailboat cannot travel forward with the wind blowing straight towards it — instead, the boat must zig-zag, travelling diagonally across the path it wants to take.
So even if the boat has travelled three miles in total, it may only have progressed two miles in its intended direction — in sailing parlance, only some of its velocity is “made good”.
This, says Lindsey Noble, interim principal of Greenwich Community College, is “a pretty good metaphor” for running a troubled college — and she should know, having completed the Clipper Round the World challenge in 2013/14, before taking the helm at the grade four-rated college in January.
“We want to get to a position where we’ve got a reasonably viable strategic plan — I mean, it can’t be a perfect document in the time available — but a reasonable restatement of where the college is going,” she says of Greenwich, which was reviewed by the FE Commissioner, just days after Noble became principal, in a visit triggered by the Ofsted grade, but which also unearthed concerns over the 5,000-learner college’s finances.
But, buffeted by funding cuts and future uncertainty, the 60-year-old Noble admits it will be a challenge to make progress in the direction she wants.
Switzerland skipper Vicky Ellis and Noble on board the yacht
“We want to be in a position to pass a viable budget in July for next year, and that obviously means the college will be downsizing as a result of the funding cuts and the decline in recruitment,” she explains.
“There’s a lot of work involved to do that — strategic planning, quality, and then making sure that we can do a financial recovery, or we can demonstrate that the financial recovery is possible within two years.”
And like sailing, you need data and calculations to get you there.
“You have an action plan based on the seven areas Ofsted have given us to focus on and you’re using data to monitor students’ performance more effectively and hold teachers and managers to account — a simple statement, but it gives rise to a whole load of issues about organising data not just for funding,” says Noble.
“But it’s not a case of whether we can afford to do this or that or the other — it’s got to be done, otherwise the college doesn’t exist.”
And it was for data management that she discovered an affinity during the clipper race, drawing information about the yacht’s position, course and oncoming weather patterns below deck — a task many crew members found difficult as being in the cabin often induces seasickness.
She may have had a strong stomach but, concedes Noble, it was “a completely different sort of challenge” to anything she’d experienced before.
“I wanted to see how I got on with the people and the pressure — because I can be a bit prickly and difficult,” she says.
And despite living in a confined space with the rest of the 10-strong crew of the yacht The Switzerland, Noble says she “got on better with the people than I expected”.
Noble saying bye to friend Laura Downton before setting off on the trip
“I didn’t lose it with anybody — I lost it with machinery, but then everyone lost it with machinery,” she adds.
And, she says, the experience of living in a space of six feet by two feet, although “bizarre” prepared her well for taking on the interim role at Greenwich, commuting for the week from her home in Winchester.
“I’m living out of a suitcase now — but I am used to living without much stuff around me now,” she says.
The physical challenge of the gruelling, four hours on, four hours off, six hours on and six hours off regime took its toll.
“After the first leg I was thinking, ‘I want to get off’ — I think a lot of people do that,” she says.
“In the middle of the ocean, when you realise you can’t do something, that left me wondering if I had bitten off more than I could chew, but I stuck it out.”
Noble took up the challenge, she says, because she’s “always been probably naively confident that I could do stuff”.
It’s a self-confidence that stood her in good stead in her own education, growing up in Surbiton, a Surrey suburb of London.
“I wasn’t always particularly successful at education, but I always enjoyed it,” she says.
“I always came out of whatever I was doing feeling I had learnt something, though whether it was the right thing is another matter.”
After escaping the “boring”, “soft suburban south” for a geography degree at Sheffield University, Noble joined Debenhams as a management trainee and then moved into sales and marketing.
But when considering returning to work after the birth of her daughter, Fern, who is now aged 26, Noble realised retail marketing wasn’t where she wanted to be, so did an MBA and discovered an interest in not-for-profit organisations.
It’s not a case of whether we can afford to do this or that or the other — it’s got to be done, otherwise the college doesn’t exist
“I enjoyed communication and I was very interested in finding out and understanding the process of influencing people to change their lives for the better — so I chose education or health,” she says.
The first job that came up was in marketing at South East Essex College (now part of South Essex College).
“At the time I didn’t know much about FE,” says Noble.
“Marketing had given me a good commercial background, but I wanted to generate more good for society, the feeling that, after a day’s work, one has done something meaningful and important — which of course, as we all know, is what FE is all about.”
After a range of management roles over the next eight years, in around 2000, Noble’s thoughts began to turn towards leadership.
“That wasn’t one of the occasions where I was over-confident,” she says.
“I had done the Aspiring Principals programme or something similar, and the sector was describing how it needed good, trained people as principals, and I thought I would give it a go.”
After her 12 years as principal at City College Southampton, which she left in a grade two-rated condition, she set off on the round the world challenge — and even after just 18 months out of the sector, she can see changes.
“I think the speed of intervention when there are problems is faster, because it took quite a long time to galvanise people to support us in my previous position,” she says.
“The level of scrutiny is very, very high — you are being scrutinised by the FE commissioner on the one hand, scrutinised by Ofsted on the other and obviously, scrutinised by the Skills Funding Agency.”
The crew of the Switzerland
But, she adds, the scrutiny and support has been “helpful” at Greenwich.
One of the key ideas behind the senior management team’s efforts to turn college around is an understanding that “one size doesn’t fit all”, she says.
“We’ve got some areas that are good,” she says.
“But we still need to encourage empowerment amongst our curriculum team leaders and managers, and if we ask for them to take responsibility and accountability, we you have to give them the freedom to use some tools, within a clear policy framework, to make things right for their students to get the outcomes that they want.”
Changes in the college have to happen, but Noble is determined it will happen with the support of staff.
“On the whole, like every FE college, Greenwich is full of very talented, very intelligent people, because we are all in education, so most people understand really,” she says.
Once she’s weathered the storm at Greenwich, and got it heading back on course, Noble plans to sail into the sunset once again — although this time at a more leisurely pace.
“The plan for me in the future is eventually to live on a boat in the Mediterranean,” she says.
It’s a personal thing
What is your favourite book, and why?
At the moment I’m reading Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and enjoying it. I like non-fiction as well as fictional treatments of history like Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Switzerland passing the Thames Barrier as it began its voyage
What do you do to switch off from work?
I do try to get to the gym and do yoga. At the weekends I will walk the my dog, Morse, a West Highland terrier, eat out and go to the gym — I do yoga, body balance and body pump classes
What’s your pet hate?
At the moment it’s the unpleasantness of people on the tube. Even though I have a bad foot in a brace at the moment, a woman raced me to the last seat on the tube. I couldn’t believe it
If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be?
I would be very interested to know what Shakespeare made of 21st Century life. So I’d like to pick him up in a helicopter from the 17th Century and take him to a modern London restaurant for dinner to see what he thought
Sheffield City Region recently signed a devolution agreement that included skills funding. Heather Smith discusses the implications.
Those of us who lead colleges often talk about distributed leadership — how to get the best from our staff and for our students to secure discretionary effort, improve quality and increase efficiency.
Indeed, to get the ownership and accountability described by so many management experts as the key to the most productive and positive work environments.
We therefore welcome a similar approach from central government and an increase in the localism agenda.
The Sheffield City Region Agreement on Devolution reflects this momentum.
The devolution agreement for Sheffield City Region does not have, as the deal for Greater Manchester does, the requirement for an elected mayor. However, there are a number of similarities such as a promise to join up the future activity of the Department for Work and Pensions with the particular needs of the regional economy around employment, including the local design of the Work Programme. It also promises a more flexible and responsive business support system in which the Local Enterprise Partnership (Lep) will have more power to meet the needs of local businesses with new, direct support from the UKTI to encourage increased export activity.
There is a commitment as well to work more closely on transport and housing, with the possibility of further devolution down the line around public services.
All of this is encouraging and gives hope that the region can do even more to tackle the issues it faces.
Our assumption that we are part of the solution will be tested when the adult skills budget is no longer automatically given to us in 2017
The most significant lever offered by the Sheffield City Region deal in this respect is that of the devolution of the adult skills budget. The Lep and combined authority will form a joint venture partnership with the Skills Funding Agency which will be responsible for re-commissioning provision. This is to provide an integrated skills and training system across the local area, driven by the needs of the economy and led by the private sector, giving local businesses the skilled labour they need to grow.
At The Sheffield College we have long recognised the need to orientate ourselves and our core purpose to the needs of the local economy.
According to Economic Modelling Specialists International (EMSI) research, we have a £321m economic impact on the city every year and are determined to increase that. Changing our curriculum to be demand-led has been a journey we have been undertaking, developing partnerships with employers. This doesn’t happen overnight, as the intelligence needs to be gathered and interpreted, reputation consolidated and responsiveness evidenced.
Getting the whole organisation behind that shift in thinking, to become more demand-led and outcome-driven, requires thinking differently and a culture change.
Investment is key as well, and is reflected in the two new build projects we are currently completing — in the technology, engineering and design areas and the other for the creative industries, which have been identified as Lep priorities for growth.
While we feel strategically-aligned with the localism approach, and proud of the work we have already been doing in this area to address regional skills shortages, we also recognise that our assumption that we are part of the solution will be tested when the adult skills budget is no longer automatically given to us in 2017.
We have developed a combined response with other FE colleges in the region, to capitalise on all our collective expertise in the development of adult skills.
The gain to be made from working together is much greater than the loss that could result from a fragmented response from FE.
Another challenge is that we will need a commissioning process which enables this to happen — something that needs working through. It’s a new test for FE and one that will no doubt be replicated around the country once the early adopters of devolution find their feet.
The direction of travel is right; the premise behind the devolution deal is good. Our challenge is to ensure that we are seen to be an indispensable part of the localism skills solution.
Sector leaders have welcomed Labour plans announced today to give every teenager face-to-face careers advice — including guidance on “high quality apprenticeships and technical degrees”.
Party leader Ed Miliband announced the proposals to improve careers advice as part of Labour’s education manifesto, A better plan for education, unveiled this morning.
A Labour spokesperson said it would involve all secondary school and college pupils “getting guaranteed face-to-face advice from trained careers advisers, beginning at the age of 11” and ensure that “teenagers learn about high quality apprenticeships and technical degrees as well as traditional academic routes into universities”.
The spokesperson added that Labour would also re-introduce compulsory work experience for 14 to 16-year-olds.
Labour claimed the proposals would cost approximately £50m and be “funded and supported through a partnership between universities, schools, colleges, and employers”.
Martin Doel (pictured right), chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC), said: “Careers guidance and advice is currently failing young people in this country and we’re pleased that Labour is looking to rectify this.
“We need a system that supports young people to make informed choices and guaranteed careers advice from trained advisors would help provide this.”
He added that Labour’s proposal was similar to what AoC proposed in its manifesto, which was “to establish a partnership between universities, schools, colleges and employers”.
“In addition, however, there should be systematic careers education built into the curriculum teaching children and young people about different types of businesses, how gender stereotyping affects career decisions and qualities needed by employers,” he said.
Dr Lynne Sedgmore (pictured below), executive director of the 157 Group, said: “We welcome the fact that Labour has listened to the many voices decrying the poor state of careers advice and guidance for young people, and will be keen to see the details of their proposals.”
She added that the 157 Group had advocated face-to-face careers guidance “for a long time”.
“It is important that what is delivered is fit for purpose in our modern and volatile world of work,” she said.
“Engaging colleges, universities and — crucially — employers in this work in schools will be the key to making sure that the advice given is current and dynamic. This is an opportunity to break down once and for all the view that academic study is all that counts.”
A spokesperson for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) said: “Primary legislation already requires schools to offer pupils independent and impartial careers advice, so any measures to help underpin this would be welcome.”
However, he added: “In AELP’s view, the key thing is for government and schools to facilitate more contact with training providers who have close links to the local employers that can provide apprenticeship and traineeship opportunities for school leavers.”
Mr Miliband said: “Young people must be equipped with the right skills, the right knowledge and the right advice they need to succeed. Failure to do this will not only cheat our young people of a decent future, it will cheat our country too.
“Labour has a better plan; equipping all our children with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed with excellence from the first steps a child takes to the day they prepare to stride into the adult world; a broad curriculum offering the best in both vocational and academic skills; a focus on the highest standards in every classroom a pathway into work.”
Tristram Hunt, Shadow Education Secretary, said: “Too many young people are having opportunities closed off to them — whether that be accessing our leading universities or high quality apprenticeships.
“If you are a young person, whether you want to pursue gold standard vocational education or a high class academic pathway into work, Labour will make sure that you have the face-to-face guidance early on, so that doors are not closed off to you.”
Labour plans to reform apprenticeships so that they would would only start from at level three and last a minimum of two years.
See edition 133 of FE Week, dated Monday, April 13, for more on Labour’s education manifesto launch.
Learners who used the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) to apply for higher education courses at FE colleges were wrongly signed up to advertising, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has ruled.
The ICO has told the organisation to change its application form following an investigation sparked by a story in the Guardian in March which drew attention to the fact learners were signing up to commercial marketing for fear of opting out of receiving key information from providers.
The watchdog found that the form only allowed applicants to opt-out of receiving marketing from commercial companies if they un-ticked three boxes covering marketing emails, post and text messages.
But the wording also meant applicants were opting out of getting information about career opportunities and education providers or health information, and the ICO ruled that it meant applicants had “felt obliged” to let Ucas use their information for commercial purposes, in breach of the data protection act.
ICO head of enforcement Stephen Eckersley (pictured) said: “Ucas has a responsibility to ensure that applicants can make free and balanced choices.
“By failing to give these applicants a clear option to avoid marketing, they were being unfairly faced with the default option of having their details used for commercial purposes. Our guidance is clear that consent must be freely given and specific.
“We are pleased that Ucas has agreed to address this issue and will now update their form so that people can make an informed decision on whether they are happy to receive marketing, or not.
“This can only be a good thing for our aspiring students by helping them to keep up-to-date on the information they want, while avoiding the hassle of unwanted marketing.”
A spokesperson for Ucas, which handles applications for higher education courses at most British universities and FE colleges, said: “Ucas takes its data protection responsibilities extremely seriously.
“We have agreed with the ICO that we will amend the wording on the Ucas application to provide greater clarity to students about the additional information they can choose to receive from us.
“This will give applicants greater flexibility about information they are sent on other education, careers and health information separately from commercial products and services.
“This does not affect the information which applicants receive from Ucas about their higher education applications. Students who opt out of additional mailings will continue to receive everything they need to manage their applications to university as well as information about other course and study opportunities, available via Ucas.”
Ucas Progress, a service which links learners with apprenticeships and other vocational courses at colleges and other providers, was not affected.
Creative teaching and the role of research were discussed at the New Bubbles Learning Revolution Conference, which also saw calls for Ofsted to be abolished.
Delegates heard from TV scientist Professor Robert Winston, a range of academics and principals as well as current and former Ofsted inspectors at the lively conference near Heathrow, London.
Among the speakers was also Professor Frank Coffield, of the Institute of Education, who attacked the education watchdog’s “much-vaunted independence” as a “joke”.
He said the sector should “abolish or transform Ofsted”.
“We are wasting £156m of our money on Ofsted,” he said.
“The role of Ofsted at present is to force teachers to comply with government policy.”
“[Sir] Michael Wilshaw thinks the big question is ‘Is the FE system fit for purpose?’… he should be asking is, is Ofsted fit for purpose? Because I don’t think it is.”
Education management consultant Trevor Gordon was more cautious but acknowledged the current inspection system meant “increasingly creativity is being stifled”.
He said when he visited providers “I look at the creative component and competence, and the technical competence”.
He said: “I don’t knock Ofsted but because of some of the impositions on teachers, there’s an over-preponderance of technical and not a lot of creativity.”
Ofsted inspector Paul Joyce, however, rejected the idea that Ofsted was failing to reward teaching which developed learners beyond the qualification.
In his advice to providers on securing an outstanding grading, he said providers should ensure teaching, learning and assessment were “of the highest quality” but they should also “develop the whole person, including literacy and numeracy skills, and wider skills learners need to help them progress to their next steps”.
“Don’t simply focus on delivering to enable students to achieve a qualification aim,” he said.
Professor Winston agreed that “inspirational” teaching was important to raise the aspirations of learners.
Despite being a geneticist, Professor Winston said in teaching, nurture was really better than nature.
“It’s partly personality, it’s partly gender, it’s partly ethnic background — a whole range of issues which come into that nurture equation,” he said.
“And it stands to reason a standard learning is not going to be suitable for all those personalities.”
He added: “The inspirational teacher, the research shows, actually makes a very big difference to how young people learn.
“What we have to do is to try to persuade ourselves and those people who measure us, that that’s actually rather more important than some of the other measurements which are generally in the public sector.”
He warned unless changes were made, UK education would be “fixed into a system which actually can’t deliver what we would be capable of delivering”.
He added: “It’s crazy in government, we have two departments looking after education which don’t talk to each other — BIS [the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills] and DfE [Department for Education] and they’re both dysfunctional and that’s a big issue for us.
“What they do is set these sorts of targets without thinking of the underlying mechanism.
“And that’s what we fundamentally have to change in education, because what we’re leaving young people with is a lack of aspiration and that gets bred in and built into the system that we have.”
Professor Susan Wallace, of Nottingham Trent University, said a lack of imagination could often account for poor performance.
She said: “Historically some of the attitudes about social class and curriculum that were prevalent in the 19th Century have thrown a very long shadow and we’re still living it in FE,” she said, warning this attitude could still be seen in the modern-day focus on employer needs.
“If the right people aren’t forming the curriculum, there is a danger that the vocational curriculum does become something that’s sterile, that’s made to serve the needs of industry of the economy, but not the needs of the learner.
“And it may be that which lies beneath some of the disengaged and disaffected learners that we meet.”
Teaching expert Geoff Petty pointed to his own research to back up the other speaker’s comments on teaching.
“Using the best methods of teaching can double the impact an average teacher has on student results,” he said.
He added: “We’ve got leadership in education wrong. We should be thinking of them as teachers.”
He highlighted a list of features of a teacher-leading style, including interpreting test scores along with teachers, insisting teachers expect high proportions of their students to do well on learning outcomes and knowing that class atmosphere was conducive to learning, which he said research showed would have four times the impact of a more “hands-free” approach.
Looking to the uncertain future of FE, Mr Petty dismissed the traditional notion of FE as the “Cinderella sector”.
“We’re not the Cinderella sector,” he said.
“We’re the goose that laid the golden egg and pretty soon they’re going to realise that.”
Dr John Lea, of Canterbury Christchurch University, said research like Mr Petty’s could help to make the case for the sector.
“It’s one of those sectors where you can be really optimistic about something one moment, and really down the next,” he said.
“If we’re going to stay buoyant about FE we need to have evidence by our side, we need to be clear about why we believe what we believe and we need to keep pushing that argument forward based on the evidence.”
The event took place on Thursday March 26.
A grade four Coalition
Professor Frank Coffield turned the tables on the government during his animated discussion, inviting around 150 delegates to rate the Coalition using Ofsted ratings.
“What Ofsted grade would you give the government’s performance on the FE sector?” he asked.
Of the delegates there, none voted to give the government an outstanding or good grade, three attendees said it required improvement while the majority of other candidates slapped it with an inadequate grade.
If you were an inspector, what grade would you give the government? Let us know on Twitter via @FEWeek.
A toolkit aimed at helping colleges and independent learning providers comply with new government rules on preventing radicalisation has been launched by two FE sector bodies.
The 157 Group and Association of Employment and Learning Providers have launched the document, which is aimed at helping providers implement the government’s “prevent duty” guidance, which was published last month.
The prevent duty guidance sets out the requirements of FE institutions which became law under section 26 of the counter-terrorism and security act 2015 in February. The act places a duty on providers to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”.
Although the law change does not “confer new functions” on providers, they are still required to consider the potential for radicalisation alongside other safeguarding issues, and the toolkit explains how FE institutions can do that.
Speaking about the duty, home secretary Theresa May has previously said: “Tackling the radicalisation of young people is not and cannot ever be the sole responsibility of the government and law enforcement agencies.
“The new prevent duty means universities will have a legal obligation to play their part, and I hope they do as fully as possible.”
Dr Lynne Sedgmore, executive director of the 157 Group, said: “We have had many questions from colleges and other providers of further education about what the prevent duty means in practice.
The document
“As with all important guidance, education professionals are always concerned to make sure they are doing the right things for their learners, all the more so when the guidance concerns such a key area of focus for our society at the moment
“The case studies and advice contained in this toolkit are not meant to be prescriptive: instead they serve as a reminder of the way in which education and training providers regularly come up with innovative solutions that have, at their heart, the interest of the communities they serve.
“In FE colleges, we understand Prevent as another form of safeguarding our learners, in this case from the risk of radicalisation. Many of the organisations that have contributed case studies to this toolkit are based in priority areas for Prevent and have been working around this agenda for several years.
“We are grateful to them for sharing their experience, which we hope will help those organisations newer to this issue. At the time of publication, the new Prevent duty has not yet been clarified in its final terms, so this document will be very useful as an interim resource.”
The toolkit was designed by the two bodies with the help of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). It also includes case studies from Highbury College, Leicester College, Birmingham Metropolitan College, Coleg Cambria, Hull College Group, Leicester College and Stoke on Trent College.
In his foreword to the toolkit, Stewart Bembridge, BIS policy adviser on preventing violent extremism, said: “All colleges and education and training providers understand the need to safeguard their learners from harm, and the risk from radicalisation of any type is no different.
“However, how radicalisation is tackled can vary from place to place and from organisation to organisation. The aim of the prevent duty and accompanying guidance therefore is to set out the activities that provide a clear framework that all organisations should follow in order to minimise the risk and protect their learners.
“While the 157 Group and AELP do not wish the case studies and information provided in this toolkit to be deemed prescriptive or the sole means of implementing the prevent agenda, the toolkit gives a helpful and timely illustration of how different education and training organisations are tackling extremism, and demonstrates a variety of approaches that address the requirements set out in the prevent duty.”
An independent learning provider that has seen just one learner achieve an apprenticeship since it started running the programme almost two years ago is having its government funding withdrawn after it was branded inadequate by Ofsted.
Kats Learning Ltd, a Hampshire-based company with 118 apprentices on hairdressing, business management and customer services frameworks, was issued with a grade four rating by the education watchdog following inspection in January.
Kats, which has provided government-funding training since 2008 and has a current Skills Funding Agency (SFA) allocation of £334,080, was previously rated as good by Ofsted, but fell to a grade four following its most recent visit, in which inspectors noted that just one apprentice had achieved their goal.
Now the SFA has confirmed it will withdraw the provider’s funding and help it to transfer learners elsewhere.
An SFA spokesperson said: “We have formally notified Kats Learning that we intend to terminate their contract. This decision was taken in line with our ‘Approach to Intervention’, following an inadequate Ofsted inspection.
“We will be working to transfer learners to other providers. This is to ensure continuity of training for learners and employers and to minimise any disruptions.”
The Ofsted report said outcomes for learners were inadequate, adding that since Kats received a contract to deliver apprenticeships in May 2013, only one learner had achieved their apprenticeship.
It said: “A small minority attained the competence element of the programme but too often learners leave before successfully achieving all aspects of the apprenticeship framework.”
In its report, Ofsted also said too many learners made slow progress towards the completion of their apprenticeships and that learners did not make sufficient progress in developing English and maths skills.
It added that strategies to improve teaching and learning were not having sufficient impact also warned that teaching, learning and assessment were inadequate, going on to claim that most tutors did not use pre-course assessments to identify learners’ starting points or needs accurately.
It criticised monitoring of learners’ progress and “poor” target setting, resulting in learners making inadequate progress. It said advice and guidance failed to provide the significant majority of apprentices with “appropriate information to ensure that they and their employers are aware of all aspects of the learning programme”.
The report criticised feedback given to apprentices on their work, which it claimed did not help them improve, and said quality assurance and performance management arrangements were inadequate. It added that the development of learners’ understanding of equality and diversity and their application to the workplace were “weak”.
Kats Learning director Chrisy Kemp claimed the Ofsted inspection result contradicted positive comments from learners collected by the watchdog during the inspection.
She told FE Week: “People should read some of the answers to our learner survey and also take a look at the survey results that were carried out during the Oftsed inspection. These are held on the news page of the website.”
The Skills Funding Agency has relaxed its rules on new traineeship subcontracting to allow all grade three-rated and non-inspected providers to work with a grade one or two lead to deliver the programme.
Thanks to the changes, brought in this month, grade three-rated (‘requires improvement’) providers and those not inspected by Ofsted can draw up traineeship agreements with grade one (‘outstanding’) and two (‘good’) lead providers they have no previous contractual relationship with.
Previously, new traineeship agreements could only be established if the provider already had a relationship with a grade one or two lead provider dating back to before the 2013 introduction of the youth employability scheme. To set up a new traineeship agreement between unconnected providers, both the lead and the subcontractor used to have to be either grade one or two.
Grade three subcontractors also had to have been on the SFA subcontractors’ list before June 2013. But, as providers are only registered on the subcontractors’ list once they are delivering more than £100,000 of provision, smaller subcontractors were excluded from offering the programme. This restriction has now been lifted.
Funding rules for 2015/16, published by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) said: “If you want to enter into a new sub-contracting arrangement with a new sub-contractor for traineeships then as of April 1, 2015, the original requirement that traineeship sub-contractors have to be graded Ofsted one or two has been removed on the basis that the lead provider has to be (and remain) at these grades. The sub-contractor can be Ofsted three or no grade.”
The move comes as the government also said all 16 to 19-year-olds would be able to continue receiving job seekers allowance (JSA) while participating in a traineeship.
A separate announcement in the SFA’s update newsletter said 16 to 19-year-olds, who had previously been prevented from claiming JSA if they were on a traineeship programme for more than 12 hours a week, would now be allowed the benefit.
The SFA said the change, which came in on Friday, would “increase access” to traineeships and “enable all young people to benefit from full-time participation while maintaining entitlement to their benefits”.
A spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which oversaw the benefit change, said: “Traineeships are important in giving young people the skills they need to move into work which is why we are ensuring that all young people continue to receive their JSA while in full-time training.
“This will also give providers and employers greater flexibility when they are designing their traineeships.”
The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), which has campaigned against the restrictions on grade three providers since there were introduced in May 2013, welcomed the news.
An AELP spokesperson said: “This is a big step forward but the initial restriction of only allowing Ofsted grade one and two-rated lead contractors to deliver traineeships should also be reviewed.
“A provider that has evidence it can deliver a high quality traineeship programme should be allowed to deliver.
“Many of these providers have existing relationships with employers currently not involved in traineeships and have established apprenticeship programmes.
“They can make those links and ensure the programme can be expanded leading to more employers seeing the benefit of providing these important first work opportunities.”
AELP has previously argued Ofsted grades were “too blunt a tool” by which to measure providers.
Teresa Frith, senior skills policy manager for the Association of Colleges (AoC), said: “It’s clear that the Coalition Government listened to the concerns raised by ourselves and others that the restrictions around Jobseeker’s Allowance for 16 to 19-year-olds and Ofsted grades for sub-contractors reduced access to traineeships.
“It is far more important for the college to have an Ofsted grade one or two and to monitor the quality of the traineeship, rather than expecting a sub-contractor to have that grade. Traineeships are supposed to increase a young person’s ability to get a job, but preventing 16 to 19-year-olds undertaking traineeships from claiming JSA made it more difficult.
“We would, however, like to see even more flexibility in the pre-apprenticeship offer to help prepare young people for a job with training.”
157 Group exectutive director Lynne Sedgmore said: “Anything which widens access to traineeships is to be welcomed so these announcements are both very positive.
“We remain concerned, though, that the same rules regarding Ofsted grades are not applied to all types of provision and continue to press for an equitable approach which enables young people to access traineeships wherever they are in the country”.
